Category Archives: Sake

In a bonehead move Kure Beach has denied Sunday morning alcohol sales. We knew somewhere in North Carolina a governing body would stand on religious principal and the evils of alcohol, but I wouldn’t have suspected it to be a tourist area. It is their prerogative to decide if Sunday morning sales should be allowed to happen, but it is ridiculous to put it in a religious context. Someone should remind them religious organizations meet all the time, not just on Sunday morning. The mayor, Craig Bloszinsky, cited traffic getting worse in town if alcohol sales were to occur beginning at 10am. I guess Craig has realized what I learned long ago, they only put those fish symbols on the back of cars who cannot drive in the first place. I think they have a meeting at church to decide who gets a fish and who doesn’t and they want the highest possible visibility so it goes on the car who drives the worst and is most likely to draw attention to the symbol. I’m kidding of course, but to say it will add to traffic is quite short sighted. People having a bloody with 10am brunch are not apt to get sloshed by noon when the neighborhood churches typically let out. Anyway, I know where I won’t be visiting when planning my next vacation if that is the attitude of Kure Beach. Sounds like they didn’t want visitors there in the first place.

On Wednesday Senate Bill 155 was introduced and while I wish it was more encompassing, it is nice someone finally realized there is no reason to wait until noon to have a bloody mary at brunch on Sunday. This bill addresses two things, one of which is the silly rule to only allow alcohol sales at restaurants after noon on Sunday. The second is to allow off-premise free tastings for those holding a distillery permit. Where it falls short is not allowing alcohol sales in retail stores until noon. I’m not saying everyone needs to have a drink at 10am on Sunday, but how about you are heading to lunch with friends and forgot to grab the wine on Saturday before lunch on Sunday. Now you run to the store to quickly pick up a red for the event and are told you need to wait until noon. Why do I need to wait until noon exactly? Because someone feels my ability to purchase alcohol should be based on their religious convictions? That’s a special kind of stupid considering all the various religions and when they have services. Are we to continue to cowtail to the prohibitionists or can we all agree it is 2017 and the chances of someone getting all liquored up and going to church service is not going to change with a change in the laws. This bill is on the right track, but let’s complete the circle and send a message to people like Rev. Mark Creech that his skewed sense of values is not that of the majority of NC.

Today is the fifth anniversary for the blog. When it started 1,827 posts ago the direction was unclear and with this post once again the direction is a bit of a mystery. Trying to post daily has proven difficult when a fresh topic idea isn’t forthcoming, for that reason the plan is to only post when there is something relevant or fun to say. That might be a reminder of a particular day to celebrate a drink or beverage of a discourse on how ignorant a politician is on the topic of alcohol or firearms. The goal will be for topics to concentrate on firearms and fermentation only occasionally coloring outside the lines. Thank you to everyone who receive the blog via email and to those who visit regularly to read what we have to say.

I had an interesting discussion yesterday with someone who tried to read words into my statements which were not there and made false comments so I ended our conversation before it lost civility. It was regarding voting and my comment was we should show proof of identity. Currently in NC you can look up any registered voter and you could take that information to a polling place during the elections, say the name, confirm the address, and vote. We had an ID law in place which was deemed by some court somewhere unconstitutional and struck down. I don’t actually remember the reasons why it didn’t pass muster, but I believe providing proof of identity should occur prior to voting. It could be an ID card or heck just a thumbprint on an electronic reader. If my cell phone can pickup my print to let me in the phone then one should be able to setup a voter identification app to do the same at the polling station.

All this got me thinking which rights require an ID already and if one constitutional right requires it why would it not apply to all of them? Certainly for the Second Amendment the laws nationwide involve an ID, so there’s one. I would think the Fourth would involve an ID to be sure when a warrant is served they have the right person. Probably the Sixth and Seventh, again to have the right person which leads into the Eighth. The Eighteenth took away our rights to alcoholic beverages and the Twenty-first brought back that right and last time I checked an ID is required for anyone who appears to be younger than the drinking age. In fact several places require ID no matter what your age. Without going through them all it would make sense to me that the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-sixth should all require an ID since so many others do already. I read that 7% of the voting age population is without an ID. That equates to around 16 million US citizens who have no form of ID. I have no problem at all with us finding a means to get any registered voter a valid ID for voting purposes. Even if it cost an average of $25 per person to carry out and all 16 million took advantage of the program our total out of pocket would be $400 million which is a drop in the bucket of Federal spending. My suspicion is most of the 16 million are not registered to vote in the first place and so they don’t vote anyway even when an ID is not required. I still cannot wrap my brain around the position requiring proof of identity is a burden and will reduce voter turnout. The only thing reducing voter turnout was two candidates which were difficult to like.

On February 12 the blog will turn five. We generate about 1,000 new views per month and 135 people following our mindless banter. Every comment is considered and we appreciate you taking the time to read about whatever happens to come to mind that day. We may decide to post less frequent and with more focus after the 12th because some days it is difficult to find an interesting topic while other days it is difficult to stop typing. So if you start to see less posts do not become alarmed, we’ll post when we have something to say as opposed to saying something daily.

It has been an incredibly tough week. On Thursday we lost our cat of 18 years and it broke my heart. The week prior our other cat had gone missing and we received a call about him yesterday. We brought him home and laid him to rest. He was such a sweet soul, but no matter what drink I brought out he would try to snag a taste. I never let him get into the glass, but he appeared to want to taste it all. He was more dog than cat and would come on command and would allow you to pet endlessly. There was no part of that cat which was off limits for a rub and he was a social butterfly visiting everyone in the neighborhood. He will be remembered forever and we miss him desperately. I am so glad for the time we spent together and wish it could have lasted much, much longer. Rest in peace sweet boy.

I know we often speak about mentally ill individuals and how they should be excluded from handling firearms. I got to thinking about depressed situations and I’m not talking about clinical depression, I’m talking about sadness from a loss or a pending loss. In those situations it is probably not a great idea for anyone who may be capable of causing harm to theirself or others to mess with firearms or alcohol. Alcohol is a known depressant and while it may numb the feelings of sadness or grief one might be feeling it certainly is not a cure. The cure is to work it out to the point you can cherish the good times. There would be nothing worse than someone grieving to imbibe too much and then decide to end it all. There is light on the other side of the tunnel and while you may feel as if you are under a mountain of grief if you keep moving forward eventually you will get to the other side.

Normally I post something on the last day of the year which is topical or interesting. Today I feel inclined to put our a reminder to celebrate the coming of the new year responsibly. That doesn’t mean you cannot overindulge and hate yourself in the morning, it just means if you do have a bit too much to leave the driving to someone else. Allow a friend, Uber, or a cab to get you back home after a wild night on the town.